Monday, January 12, 2015

Not so black and white

I am not sure where I stand on this... In November 1970, the former French presidentCharles de Gaulledied in his home village ofColombey-les-Deux-Églises, eight days after a disaster in a nightclub, theClub Cinq-Sept fire, which caused the death of 146 people. The magazine released a cover spoofing the popular press's coverage of this disaster, headlined "Tragic Ball at Colombey, one dead."[6]As a result, the weekly was banned.

In order to sidestep the ban, the editorial team decided to change its title, and used Charlie Hebdo.[1] The new name was derived from a monthly comics magazine called Charlie (later renamed Charlie Mensuel, meaning Charlie Monthly), which had been started by Bernier and Delfeil de Ton in 1969. The monthly Charlie took its name from the lead character of one of the comics it originally published, Peanuts's Charlie Brown. Using that title for the new weekly magazine was also an inside joke about Charles de Gaulle

as I liked the Snoopy character from my view in the Peanut gallery. Though it sounds like I'd group "CHARLIE (Brown) as Anti-Religion propaganda in a religious War... (I am all 4 "free speech" but realize that cartoons like ghosts can be good or bad spirits and thereby be labled ...) This I believe is just part of a start to ... a I had ... "20,000 league under the sea" dream that had had a Squid ... Maybe some of this ink work coming to the surface.

'I am not Charlie:" cracks in the unity after Paris attacks

By Ingrid Melander

PARIS (Reuters) - The world outpouring of sympathy after the deadly "Charlie Hebdo" attack has touched many in France but some either detect a note of hypocrisy or feel squeamish about supporting a satirical weekly that antagonized many.

President Francois Hollande's government insists freedom of expression must not be curtailed out of fear of further attacks, and authorities have got fully behind a spontaneous "Je suis Charlie" ("I am Charlie") social media campaign of solidarity.

But scepticism has emerged on the one hand from surviving Charlie Hebdo workers who reject some of the support for them as insincere; from others who found the weekly plain offensive; and others who question the human rights records of the 40-plus world leaders taking part in Sunday's unity march in Paris.

"There are so many big words being said about freedom of expression and democracy. But where was the support (for it) before? There wasn't that much proof," 26-year-old math student Nalo Magalhou said of some of the political and media reaction.

While far less popular than #JeSuisCharlie ("#IamCharlie"), the #IamNotCharlie hashtag has also appeared on Twitter.

To be sure, there is a fringe minority on the Internet who have praised the attacks that killed 17 in three separate attacks over three days and culminated in the siege of a kosher deli in eastern Paris.

But more significant is the body of people who say that while they outright condemn the attacks, they still cannot bring themselves to support a newspaper that mocked religions.

"It would be too easy (to say) I am Charlie," Belgian blogger Marcel Sel wrote on his website.

Horrified by the attacks he unreservedly condemns, he said it would be "cowardly" to pretend he is "Charlie" while he had harshly criticized some of its cartoons on Islam in the past.

Zakaria Moumni, a 34-year-old Franco-Moroccan draped in the French flag at the Place de la Republique rally point for Sunday's march has a very different reason to think there are cracks in the facade of unity.

"Some heads of state and government simply should not be there when they crack down on freedom of expression in their own country. It's hypocritical," said the former Thai box champion, who says he had been tortured in Morocco and had received support from NGOs such as Human Rights Watch when jailed there.

Morocco has rejected accusations of torture and last March filed a legal complaint in France against them.

For veteran Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard Holtrop, the problem is with some of the paper's new "friends."

Holtrop, famous in France under the name of Willem, said he was happy if people worldwide marched to defend freedom of speech. But asked about support from Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, he said: “We vomit on all those people who are suddenly saying they are our friends."

"We’ve got a lot of new friends – the pope, Queen Elizabeth, Putin. I’ve got to laugh about that," he said. Willem says he is alive only because he does not like going to weekly staff meetings and was not in the Paris office when two gunman erupted and killed his colleagues and two policemen.

(Additional reporting by Thomas Ecritt in Amsterdam; editing by Mark John and Anna Willard)

Around 3/1/97 I had a waking Vision of 911 ...

Had a waking vision in 1997 in which I saw a "Twisted I Beam" that turned out to be 911
I got into an argument, that turn into a fight against the "Justice system" as I have and do state that they are the crooks!
I view myself as a seer.